Sugarbakers—

 A Place Where Good Food And Good Friends Meet

By Kaaren Valenta

Donna Glover and Judith Collins know just where they will be celebrating their birthday next week. The two women, who share a July 28 birth date, will be at Sugarbakers, the European-style bakery and café at 97 South Main Marketplace.

Sugarbakers will be holding a grand opening celebration from 5:30 pm to 8:30 pm on Tuesday and Wednesday, July 27 and 28, with special pastry treats, appetizers, finger sandwiches, and coffee. Donna Glover and Judith Collins are an integral part of this business, which opened earlier this year next to Compass restaurant on South Main Street (Route 25).

Bright and welcoming, Sugarbakers is open for breakfast, lunch, and mid-day cravings. There is seating indoors and on the small outdoor patio, as well as a take-out counter filled with made-fresh-daily pastries, country breads, cookies, muffins, pies, and cakes.

Sugarbakers offers breakfasts that include such interesting choices as scrambled eggs, onions, peppers, and Brie cheese in a low-carb wrap; smoked Nova salmon with onion, cucumber, and cream cheese over a crispy bagel, and strawberries, blueberries, and raspberries over low-fat yogurt sprinkled with granola mix.

Lunch selections include veggie wraps, low-carb choices, and a dozen sandwiches made with turkey, ham, and roast beef that are all roasted in the store and served with flavored spreads — sweet red pepper, artichoke lemon pesto, Calamata olive, that are among the gourmet foods sold in the store — and with potato chips that are made fresh on the premises. Daily specials include choices like the Beanie Baby, a black bean burger topped with sun-dried tomatoes, and Purple Rain, mix of eggplant, proscuitto, and roasted red peppers on a wrap or grinder. There is fresh fruit, plus blue-bottled Saratoga waters, and gourmet coffee and tea.

“We want to be different — no one else serves what we do,” Ms Glover said. “We do a lot with focaccia bread and ciabbata bread along with flavored wraps. We make our own quiches, salads, and soups. Most of the baked goods are made here, except for the bagels, hard rolls, and breads that come from the New York Bakery in Norwalk.”

“We make our own all-white meat chicken salad, our own meatballs and meatloaf. We do everything here. I don’t like to bring [ready-made] food in.”

There are specialty salads every day and seafood specials — crab cakes, beer-battered cod, salmon burgers — on Fridays. A favorite of many diners is the fresh-baked turkey breast sandwich topped with stuffing and cranberry sauce made on the premises. Sweet potato fries also have a big fan club.

A resident of Newtown since she was 12 years old, Donna Larsen Glover has been involved with restaurants and deli’s for nearly 30 years. She spent 11 years in the kitchen at the former Leo’s restaurant in Newtown before going to work at Roosters in Fairfield for a year. While she is in charge of the cooking and baking, Judith Collins, a Monroe resident who moved to the United States from Hungary 12 years ago, manages Sugarbakers’ café and take-out operations.

“We have everything you can think of and a lot more to come,” Ms Glover said. “Around the holidays I want to do cookie trays. And I hope to get into catering. We also would like to be able to expand delivery in the Newtown area.”

Customers who visit the store are greeted by the aroma of fresh hot muffins, croissants, and scones coming out of the oven, trays of lemon squares, brownies, and truffles, and a revolving case filled with gourmet desserts. Coming soon is a machine to make iced coffee and iced cappuccinos, as a hot-weather alternative to the Italian espressos, lattes, and teas already available.

Sugarbakers was launched by hair stylist/entrepreneur Daniel Riccio, owner of Ricci’s Salon & Spa, Ricci’s Academy, and Elizabeth Ricci Fine Gifts whose vision has been to make the South Main Marketplace a destination site — a place, he says, to celebrate some of life’s greatest pleasures.

Donna Glover said the grand opening celebration wasn’t deliberately scheduled to fall on her birth date. It was just that she had been so busy with the arrangements for the recent wedding of her daughter, BobbiJo, that Dan Riccio graciously decided to wait. The thought of spending their birthdays working doesn’t bother the two women.

“We’ll enjoy the grand opening and then go out for drinks afterwards,” Ms Glover quipped.

Sugarbakers is open Mondays from 6:30 am to 3 pm; Tuesday through Saturday from 7 am to 6:30 pm. Closed Sundays. For more information or takeout orders call 426-6653.